The Spencer
523 West 121st Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway · Morningside Heights, Upper West Side
BBL 1019760013 · BIN 1059652
- Year built
- 1905
- Type
- Cooperative
- Amenities
- Doorman; elevator; live-in superintendent; central laundry; storage; bicycle room
- Landmark status
- Not an individual landmark; not in a historic district
- NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission and City Planning records, updated February 2026
- Flip tax
- Tiered or formula; see fees
- Doorman
- Doorman (hours not stated)
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Spencer would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.
The Spencer is a small doorman cooperative with 24 residences on West 121st Street. George F. Pelham's design uses red Roman brick, classical entrance detailing and a pronounced cornice. Inside, apartments can retain side-by-side living and dining rooms, wood paneling and generous ceiling heights.
The combination of a six-story building and staffed entrance is consequential at this scale. The cooperative's services are supported by a relatively small group of shareholders, while its room arrangements reflect the larger formal spaces of early-twentieth-century apartment design.
Architecture and unit composition
Architectural history identifies the building as part of a coordinated group of apartment houses completed in 1905. The Spencer's façade includes band courses, quoining, window lintels with scrolled keystones and a bracketed entrance hood supported by classical pilasters.
The apartment inventory includes two-bedroom, five-room plans with adjoining formal living and dining rooms. Windowed eat-in kitchens and windowed bathrooms appear in several layouts. Preserved oak paneling, moldings and original cabinetry are present in some homes, with other interiors more extensively renovated.
Recorded apartment areas commonly range from approximately 850 to 1,200 square feet. That creates a meaningful spread even within the two-bedroom category. A separate dining room can supply an additional enclosed room without changing the apartment's exterior footprint, while a large eat-in kitchen preserves dining space if the formal room is used differently.
Front and rear exposures also vary. Some homes extend between north- and south-facing windows, while rear apartments have their principal rooms away from West 121st Street. Raised first-floor apartments provide a different entrance relationship from homes reached by elevator on upper floors.
Building operations
Doorman service, a live-in superintendent and an elevator distinguish the operating structure. Laundry, bicycle storage and additional storage are provided within the building. These services accompany a modest residence count, making the staffing component more prominent than it would be in a much larger cooperative.
The cooperative has used institutional financing: its lender announced a line of credit for Spencer Apartments, Inc. in 2018. That historical facility establishes the corporation's separate borrowing activity; it is not a statement of the current mortgage balance or an individual buyer's financing limit.
Policy framework
Pets: Allowed — confirm with the managing agent.
Financing: Up to 80%, with a minimum 20% down payment — confirm with the managing agent.
Application and transaction fees
Fees below are from building management's published schedule, as of September 2026. They are shown as published, item by item; no total is added because the total depends on the transaction. Deposits are listed apart from nonrefundable charges.
- Terms
- 2.25% of the difference between the original purchase price and the current sales price
- Paid by
- Seller
Source: building management's published schedule, as of September 2026
Purchase
6 items
Fees and charges
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application Fee | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $600 | Refundable Not stated |
| Credit Report FeePer applicantRequired | Paid by Buyer | When With the application | Amount $100 per person | Refundable Non-refundable |
| Buyer Power of Attorney FeePer applicant | Paid by Buyer | When At closing | Amount $250 per POA | Refundable Not stated |
| Recognition Agreement FeeConditional | Paid by Buyer | When At closing | Amount $400 (if financing) | Refundable Not stated |
| Shareholder Power of Attorney FeePer applicant | Paid by Shareholder | When At closing | Amount $250 per POA | Refundable Not stated |
| Transfer Fee | Paid by Shareholder | When At closing | Amount $1,250 | Refundable Not stated |
Sublet
2 items
Fees and charges
| Item | Paid by | When | Amount | Refundable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Application Fee | Paid by Subtenant | When With the application | Amount $600 | Refundable Not stated |
| Credit Check FeePer applicantRequired | Paid by Subtenant | When With the application | Amount $100 per person | Refundable Non-refundable |
Management updates its schedule without a public filing. The date is when management last updated the page, not when a rule changed. Confirm the current schedule with management before you apply.
Considering an apartment here? Send Corey the listing to discuss the building's costs and purchase requirements.
Own an apartment here? Request an apartment-specific pricing review.
Building staffing and amenities
- Doorman
- Doorman (hours not stated)Source: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Live-in superintendent
- YesSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
- Elevator
- YesSource: NYC Department of City Planning records (PLUTO)
- Amenities noted
- Bike storage, laundry roomSource: The Roebling Team's building profile
Staffing and amenities as our building profile and recent listing records describe them. A feature not listed is not confirmed absent. Outdoor space, parking and some facilities can belong to particular apartments or to a separate owner; confirm access for the specific apartment.
Local Law 97
- 2024–2029 annual penalty
- $0 (under cap)
- 2030–2034 annual penalty
- $5,555/yr
- Per unit / month range
- $0 – $19
- Modeled exposure split equally across 24 units (the residential count on the city's lot record). Not an assessed amount; co-op shareholders are typically charged by share allocation.
Source: NYC LL84 benchmarking and PLUTO · The Roebling Research Library. City data last refreshed October 2026.
See full Local Law 97 analysis — emissions history, scenarios, methodology →Recent sales
Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 31, 2025 | 43 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,201 sf | $953,500 | $794/sf | -1.5% |
| Dec 6, 2022 | 1 | 2 BR · 1 BA | $599,000 | -22.1% | |
| Feb 2, 2017 | 52 | 2 BR · 1 BA · 1,000 sf | $830,000 | $830/sf | -6.7% |
| Feb 23, 2015 | 62 | 2 BR · 1 BA · 1,000 sf | $877,500 | $878/sf | -4.1% |
| Jun 20, 2013 | 2 | 2 BR | $620,000 | +0.0% | |
| Aug 23, 2011 | 23 | 3 BR · 2 BA · 1,200 sf | $855,000 | $713/sf | -2.3% |
| Jul 28, 2011 | 33 | 2 BR | $899,000 | +0.0% | |
| Jun 27, 2011 | 32 | 2 BR | $544,000 | -5.4% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2025) cleared a median $794/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 3.1% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Other recent transfers
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 9, 2009 | 44 | $849,000 |
| Mar 23, 2005 | 3 | $685,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01976-0013). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.
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Comparable buildings
- 114 Morningside Drive: A nearby prewar cooperative of similar scale with a park-edge setting.
- 50 Morningside Drive: Another six-story cooperative with a comparable residence count.
- The Luxor: A taller prewar cooperative with a larger inventory farther south.
- The Charlemagne: A larger early-twentieth-century cooperative within Morningside Heights.
- 603 West 111th Street: A smaller cooperative for comparing association size and apartment configuration.
- The Strathmore: A taller Riverside Drive cooperative with a substantially different frontage and scale.
More Upper West Side buildings
- The Blennerhasset, 507–511 West 111th Street — 1903 co-op
- Cathedral Tower, 514 West 110th Street — 1911 condominium by Schwartz & Gross
- 520 West 110th Street — 1911 condominium by Schwartz & Gross
- The Britannia, 527 West 110th Street — 1909 condominium
- 530 Amsterdam Avenue — 1931 co-op by Margon & Holder
- 532 West 111th Street (The Charlemagne) — 1909 co-op by Mulliken & Moeller
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, transit, and pricing across Upper West Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper West Side.
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
Considering a move at The Spencer?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
646.939.7375 · c.cohen@compass.com